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Gamers - I got my 15" Retina $2799 - Have questions?

I received a similar system yesterday (15 rMBP / 512 GB) and I'll just add some comments below rather than starting a ton of new threads on the subject (note that these comments only focus on the Gaming side of boot camp).

A little background- I also own a 2011 13.3" Air (128 GB / 4 GB RAM model).. I decided I was going to evaluate this rMBP to replace my Air as a general purpose carry everywhere laptop- hoping for similar battery life and more horsepower. My 13.3" air has been awesome in both OS X and Windows, great battery life, decently cool and great battery life unless you expect some number crunching...

Right now the biggest complaint I have is heat in Windows 8. Installed Windows 8 release preview + Nvidia Verde drivers (after disabling driver signing)- the lack of a presented HD4000 integrated graphics card in boot camp is a rather large issue in my opinion.

Even idling the MBP stays uncomfortably warm to the touch in Windows, as if all of the CPU throttling / GPU throttling is gone.

When gaming for 10 minutes or so, the keyboard surface becomes very uncomfortable if you happen to press a key too far and the tip of your finger makes contact with the case metal.

One pro I give- the fan is nearly inaudible even during gaming- you can hear the white noise of air moving but zero fan squeal at all.

Games run perfectly fluid- I'm going to evaluate more and decide if I want to keep this unit or return it (will pay particular attention to scaling quality and will probably update this thread later on down the road).

Other huge con I see is battery life on the Windows side, I'm fairly sure with as much heat as this unit is giving off at idle I won't be getting anywhere near 5-6 hours like I can achieve on the air with it's HD3000 IGP. That's disappointing as someone that needs to use Windows for work related things (VMware/XenServer management)- won't be able to only carry one laptop now.
 
Can you not do your work-related Windows things in a Fusion VM? I expect the Ivy Bridge MBP has enough horsepower to give you about as much power in a VM as you get natively in a 2011 MBA, gaming excluded.

Hopefully they fix the Windows drivers eventually. I wonder if it's better-behaved in Windows 7?
 
I'm thinking of getting one of these MBPs - how are games affected by the retina display? For example does Civ V look overly pixelated/does it need an update to support retina properly?
 
randomnut said:
I'm thinking of getting one of these MBPs - how are games affected by the retina display? For example does Civ V look overly pixelated/does it need an update to support retina properly?
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It will look exactly the same as if you play the game on a non-retina MBP. The only difference is that with the rMBP, you can notch the game resolution upto 2880x1800 *if* the game supports it.
 
Would love for someone to try out ArmA 2, it's one of if not the most CPU and GPU intensive games on the PC right now.
 
Alright, I Bootcamped Windows 7, but only had 32 bit available. I plan on getting my hands on 64 bit, but I figured this would be good for a test run. As a result, RAM was limited to 2GB.

I tried ArmA 2 CO, and with the beta drivers installed, played comfortably on all medium. I feel that with more RAM performance will be great.

What I am happy to report though, is that temps never went above 90C, and rarely went about 85C.
 
hello, just a tip for some gamers on the rmbp.

Since I'm assuming a lot of you guys are like me & gaming on bootcamp, I'd like to recommend a program called throttlestop , which is used to adjust the behavior of our CPUs. The feature in question is setting a lower clock ceiling.

Lowering the CPU clockspeed or disabling the turbo altogether will decrease temperatures tremendously, which will in turn allow for more headroom for GPU overclocking (CPU/GPU share the same heatsink). I overclocked the GPU core to 1035mhz (vs 900 stock) and its temps stay steady @ 75-79C while gaming.

Also, locked at 2.5ghz, the CPU doesn't hit 90C anymore, and usually wavers between 83-88C depending on how the fan algorithm is working at that particular moment.

Most games are GPU-bound, so using throttlestop will keeps temps down and maximize your fps, which is what we all want, right?
(I've observed 8-15fps increases in areas Metro 2033, Saints Row the third, Deus Ex HR, and Skyrim had hard framerate dips)
Temps monitored with Throttlestop, MSI Afterburner, & GPU-Z.
If you want some more detailed help I'd love to spell it out.


Hope this helps someone :)
 
ibebyi said:
hello, just a tip for some gamers on the rmbp.

Since I'm assuming a lot of you guys are like me & gaming on bootcamp, I'd like to recommend a program called throttlestop , which is used to adjust the behavior of our CPUs. The feature in question is setting a lower clock ceiling.

Lowering the CPU clockspeed or disabling the turbo altogether will decrease temperatures tremendously, which will in turn allow for more headroom for GPU overclocking (CPU/GPU share the same heatsink). I overclocked the GPU core to 1035mhz (vs 900 stock) and its temps stay steady @ 75-79C while gaming.

Also, locked at 2.5ghz, the CPU doesn't hit 90C anymore, and usually wavers between 83-88C depending on how the fan algorithm is working at that particular moment.

Most games are GPU-bound, so using throttlestop will keeps temps down and maximize your fps, which is what we all want, right?
(I've observed 8-15fps increases in areas Metro 2033, Saints Row the third, Deus Ex HR, and Skyrim had hard framerate dips)
Temps monitored with Throttlestop, MSI Afterburner, & GPU-Z.
If you want some more detailed help I'd love to spell it out.


Hope this helps someone :)
Click to expand...

On the other hand, If you want to keep your turbo, you can just use Lubbo's Fan control and blast your fans.

With the fans at max, and my graphics card overclocked to 1150/1604, my CPU maxed out at 85C and my GPU maxed out at 69C after 2 hours of Skyrim (at 2880x1800 :D)

With how loud the fans in this thing are, I don't mind having them on max at all.
 
asdad123 said:
On the other hand, If you want to keep your turbo, you can just use Lubbo's Fan control and blast your fans.

With the fans at max, and my graphics card overclocked to 1150/1604, my CPU maxed out at 85C and my GPU maxed out at 69C after 2 hours of Skyrim (at 2880x1800 :D)

With how loud the fans in this thing are, I don't mind having them on max at all.
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intense stuff nice temps :) these retina mbps are pretty sleek.
 
JohnDoe98 said:
How hot is the enclosure during normal usage, not during intense games? Does the casing remain cool on your lap? My old 2007 MBP gets very hot which is fine under load, but for normal tasks it is annoying.
Click to expand...

much better, Runs cool on lap no problem.
 
Can someone run Unigine Heaven benchmark at max settings but with 1680x1050 res? If you can run it in bootcamp windows, that would be nice.

I tried out a cMBP 2012 with 2.6ghz AG, it throttled within 5 minutes and noticed CPU temp got up to 98°C before throttle. Had to return it because of excessive display light bleeding. Below are results.
Benchmark Results for cMBP


I may end up buying the retina macbook pro 2.6/16/512. I also heard the graphics are faster on the retina than classic so I just want to compare before I make the investment.
 
Not sure if it's been asked in the last 11 pages, but here goes:

Will forcing the rMBP to use integrated graphics (for something like Diablo 3) on med / low settings make battery life much better for mobile gaming?

I can't work out whether it would have to work harder (too hard?) and therefore use more battery, or as it draws less power (an assumption) it would use less battery.

Or would it be much of a muchness?

It certainly runs fine. I suppose I could just do some real world testing, but I thought someone else might know already!
 
macguy360 said:
I have just 1 question. How does it feel to spend 3 grand on a laptop only to get a laptop with a midrange graphics card that won't even play games at native resolution very well? Especially if your just going to throw bootcamp on it to play games.

You know for $1200 you could have gotten yourself a much better gaming laptop like the g75vw.

Proceed with the downvotes
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wanna know something interesting? When you are ready to get a new laptop and you go to sell the rMBP in about 3 years you will get about $1800 - $2000 for it. When you go to upgrade your less expensive "gaming" laptop, you will be lucky to get $500. Which is really cheaper?
 
gentlefury said:
wanna know something interesting? When you are ready to get a new laptop and you go to sell the rMBP in about 3 years you will get about $1800 - $2000 for it. When you go to upgrade your less expensive "gaming" laptop, you will be lucky to get $500. Which is really cheaper?
Click to expand...

theres no way it'll be 1800-2000 in 3 years. would anyone buy something from 3 years ago for 1800-2000? even the absolutly maxed out models?
 
asdad123 said:
On the other hand, If you want to keep your turbo, you can just use Lubbo's Fan control and blast your fans.

With the fans at max, and my graphics card overclocked to 1150/1604, my CPU maxed out at 85C and my GPU maxed out at 69C after 2 hours of Skyrim (at 2880x1800 :D)

With how loud the fans in this thing are, I don't mind having them on max at all.
Click to expand...

Hey how are you OC'ing your GPU? What tool are you using in Windows? Thanks! Sorry if it's been answered, I haven't followed the thread
 
gentlefury said:
wanna know something interesting? When you are ready to get a new laptop and you go to sell the rMBP in about 3 years you will get about $1800 - $2000 for it. When you go to upgrade your less expensive "gaming" laptop, you will be lucky to get $500. Which is really cheaper?
Click to expand...

You're out of your mind on that comparison. The price on these things will plummet in a couple years. Look at something as recent as refurbished prices on the 2011 macbook pros. Within a couple years (and definitely within 3), you'll see some of these features trickle down forcing used prices down with them. SSD prices will most likely continue to fall, so something like a 512GB ssd may be a stock option (we are talking about 2-3 years). You're likely to see this design migrate down to the $1800 model. Any cpu upgrades will be meaningless as any of the new ones will outpace the differences in top cpu options from a couple years ago when examining comparable core counts. At that point a buyer is better off buying a refurb of whatever $1800 model for $1600ish with a year warranty rather than an old computer with unknown history for $400 more.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't buy one, but it's a depreciable/sunken cost, not an investment.

gentlefury said:
I am selling my 2008 Mac Pro for $1800. Pro models hold their value quite well.
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You should consider that the 2008 mac pro was somewhat of an enigma in terms of price to specs. Beyond that if it's anything close to a stock configuration, you found a buyer willing to pay too much.
 
gentlefury said:
I am selling my 2008 Mac Pro for $1800. Pro models hold their value quite well.
Click to expand...

That may be true for niche models like your mac pro, but MBP don't have that awesome resale value. I have a 2011 MBP 15 max out with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd that I paid around $3000 for last year. Now, there's no takers for $1300 shipped here or on craigslist.
 
magbarn said:
That may be true for niche models like your mac pro, but MBP don't have that awesome resale value. I have a 2011 MBP 15 max out with 8gb ram, 256gb ssd that I paid around $3000 for last year. Now, there's no takers for $1300 shipped here or on craigslist.
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Well, I take amazing care of all my products and I work in an industry full of people looking for a good deal.
 
JasonHamer said:
ninja2000 would you be able to post the instructions of how to best install this .inf? Trying to test TSW on the Macbook Pro Retina.

Regards
J
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Hey, you shouldn't need to do this now as there are now bootcamp drivers available (I created the modded inf before they were released).

If you need it because you want to use newer drivers than the boot camp drivers then first try the 304.79 drivers as I think they will install without a modded inf (well they do on my m14x r2 with 650m)
 
gentlefury said:
Well, I take amazing care of all my products and I work in an industry full of people looking for a good deal.
Click to expand...

Even if my MBP was still shrink wrapped and never opened since last year I could not get away charging much more than what Apple charges for a refurb at $1359. (Which is a loss of 50% depreciation in one year) Lucky for you, Apple is very stingy with their mac pro refurb discounts and doesn't cut their value in half with an annual refresh like they do with their MBP line. Again, your mac pro is a special niche product. As expensive as the rMBP is, the majority are being bought by consumers watching youtube and looking at crapBook. Now that Apple has adopted annual refresh with Intel's tick-tock strategy, the days where a G4 macbook losing only 20% in 1 year are LONG GONE.
 
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